A Comparison of Skyfall on iTunes, Vudu, and Blu-ray - Page 7

Exactly. 99% of people don't care about a quality increase that they need a 200" screen 5 feet in front of them to see...

If it's an ISO of the BD, then it's the same quality, so it would be like ripping BD's to a server in ISO format and streaming them back... I read Kaleidescape's website, what a ridiculous product, and some of the stuff they say about streaming, the industry, and their system is downright hilariously stupid.

Seriously, BiggAW, are you trying to be a jerk or are you just that thick? I've been telling you that as ling as you view the screen from THX recommended distance, you WILL see the difference, IE 100" from 9' away.

Thank God for ignore button! Too bad I forgot about it until just now.

They are just that thick. Go look at some of the other threads that they bash stuff on.

Care to elaborate on that?

I value their offer if only for this one thing: "Movie purchases made in the Kaleidescape Store are noted in your account, allowing for replacement downloads in the case of system loss or damage." Do that with a physical collection (moreover without breaking the law).
Edited by relaxnl - 3/6/13 at 2:17am

My point is that EST MIGHT FINALLY not fall behind on quality with respect to physical media IF AND WHEN that store goes on-line

I personally have not yet seen an HTPC doing the same things that a Kaleidescape system does. If you have pointers or references I'd love them.

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/news/article/what-makes-kaleidescape%27s-movie-guide-tick/14698
http://theosroundtable.com/john-sciacca/john-sciacca-kaleidescape-inventing-refining-perfecting-the-wheel/

Neither. I'm just not one of the few who has a 200" screen to stand in front of to see the difference.

First of all, you'd have to re-buy significant parts of a collection multiple times to ever make up for the cost of one of those things, and the whole system is pointless, you could just have a shelf, walk over to the shelf, pick the disc up, and walk it to the room you want to play it in. Their FAQ is pretty funny. They try to write off streaming as "just another delivery mechanism", well yeah, it's the standard now for movie watching, and then they go on to say something about a "magical experience". They are grasping at straws to find something to say about a product that is pointless in so many ways. The A/V nuts who claim they can see the difference in blu-ray discs are using Oppo players, and everyone else is streaming. Lastly, even if you somehow justify a Blu-ray server, you could bake your own with a NAS or media PC for a lot less money, and get a lot more flexibility out of it.

Yup.

You can control an Oppo player with a Crestron or Control 4 system through IR, IP, or RS-232C as well, and have the system drive the same type of integration. Heck, you could IR blast any Wal-Mart POS Blu-Ray player. Yeah, except Bose has a semblance of a purpose, even if they are grossly overpriced and have messed up audio (those little cube speakers).

Seriously? i thought "good enough" is good enough for you afterall, just like your argument, the majority find Bose to be very good, just like you claim VuduHDX to be very good.

Two totally different cases. Bose sucks the midrange out of the speakers (since they are TINY) and into the sub, which ends up really sucking for audio quality, while Vudu HDX delivers an experience, which for all but the top 1% of home theater nuts with giant projection screens, is visually the same as Blu-Ray. And, Vudu HDX being very good was agreed upon in the beginning of the thread, what we're debating is whether a human can perceive the difference between Blu-Ray and HDX, i.e. whether it is excellent. And yes, Vudu HDX is excellent.

This is exactly what I am doing since several months. I am transferring DVD and BD content in my NAS (10 TB RAID6) where my iTunes Library lives, so to be read from my Apple TV or loaded via iTunes into my iDevices when on the go.

The problem being the "...since several months". To transfer the content of an optical disk I have to rip the various tracks, the subtitiles, check when and which are the forced one, mux everything, add metadata with Subler, etc

I am devoting an aggregated substantial amount of my private time to achieve the result which I could obtain with an almost zero effort from a Kaleidescape system. I would just have to pop a disc in the vault, and the system would take care of everything for me.

If I were to be paid for the time I'm investing at the rate of my current job... a Kaleidescape would be a way cheaper alternative!!!! The sad reality is that I am not paid for my private time, therefore I either drop 20k€ on the Kaleidescape system or follow the alternative path which I am alredy on.

Having said all that... I believe that EST will be the future, and I'm glad for every step we made toward that direction, hence thumbs up for iTunes Movie Store, Netflix, Hulu and whatever other service is out there.
Edited by relaxnl - 3/7/13 at 6:34am

Why not just get a shelf, and put the disc in the blu-ray player? It ends up being a lot easier than Kaleidescape or any home-baked solution.

Because I have more than 600 items to put on shelves and a small son that would not be able to properly manage them. On the ATV, he knows how to press the button to select a title (Kaleidescape has a far superior parental control) and can change the title without problems

His pattern is 5 minutes of Anastasia, then 5 minutes of 101 Dalmatians, then 15 minutes of Nemo, etc

Sounds like an over-complicated solution to a non-existant problem.

On the contrary, it solves the problem of having instant access to my collection from any point locally or remotely

Are you so lazy that you can't walk across the room, pick up a disc and load it into the player?

Indeed...(doesn't my name give it away?!)

I don't want to have to search through 600 items for the one I need, nor do I want to risk that my son puts disks in random cases or scratches them, or breaks the bd player tray to put them in.

I want instant gratification... no trailers or unskippable videos before the content is on the screen.
Edited by relaxnl - 3/8/13 at 1:56am

then dont let your son touch your stuff :-)

Easier said than done!